


Tick-Tock, No Time to Walk

by alecisnoonesbitch



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Canada-centric, FACE Fam but more like FAE fam with matthew to the side, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:20:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27939591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alecisnoonesbitch/pseuds/alecisnoonesbitch
Summary: Matthew is at an amusement park, his brothers are ignoring him, and he comes across a choice. No swears since this was a school assignment.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Tick-Tock, No Time to Walk

**Author's Note:**

> This was actually a school assignment. I had to write a short story.

The first thing Matthew saw after blinking was white; the sun was blinding. Today was his twin brother Alfred and his' 17th birthday. The family had come to this amusement park at Alfred's request. No one asked what Matthew wanted to do. Actually getting a ticket had surprised him, generally they just left him at home.

Unlike his brothers, Mother and Father never forgot Matthew, they had been loving and attentive. However, his older brothers Arthur and Francis never acknowledged his existence. As if it was his fault that his father's phone call had run longer than expected and made them late. His fault that by the time they were on the road it was dark and the roads were rain-slick. His fault that the front of the car had been crushed, when it was clear his brothers would've preferred that it be the back. Sitting in the back dazed and watching his mother slowly bleed out as his father sat, dead on impact, THAT was his fault. Just sitting there, doing nothing, saying nothing, not calling 911, just sitting. No one came to visit him in the hospital.

He continued walking alone through the aisles of overpriced amusement park food stands, he passed the edge of the theme park. The park was situated on a 1 000ft cliff, which was probably why it was called Cliffside, even though it was on top and not on the side of a cliff. The edge had only a flimsy railing. Anyone could fall over or through, he had heard about parents losing their children only to realize that they had fallen. Arthur had told him about it, probably in the hopes that Matthew would jump off. His siblings were off riding the green and silver rollercoaster Slither. Alfred ignored Matthew in front of their brothers to avoid antagonizing them and consequently, had 'forgotten' Matthew.

One single game was all that Alfred had won, in the 60 tries he had made when they had first arrived at the park; Horseshoe Hoedown. In the game, you have to hook three horseshoes around the wooden sticks to win a prize. A stuffy had been chosen by Alfred to give to "His Twinniest Bro-Dude". Ghost: he had given Matthew a ghost, and then had wondered out loud how the ghost was 'floating in mid-air'. Any and all hope for an enjoyable birthday had been lost at that moment.

An iron bench came into view; made up of thorny black vines and red and silver roses. Simple elegance seemed out of place in the gaudy, bright amusement park. It didn't belong; Matthew could relate. So dark was the iron that it seemed to cast an impenetrable black shadow beneath the bench that almost looked solid. Staring at the shadow from a few feet away, he was skeptical, but when a family of five walked by and nothing happened he lost any suspicion.

Hot, the iron was scorching hot from sitting under the Mid-July sun. Sitting down fully, he sighed contently: the bench warmed the chill he had sustained from getting splashed whilst walking past the water park section.

Dozens of tourists pass by, not one of them even glancing at him. As if he didn't exist. They probably wouldn't notice if he actually didn't exist. His brothers passed by once; Alfred didn't even acknowledge him; spotting him and looking quickly away. Everyone always talked about twins being "inseparable best friends" and "exactly the same". There was only thing Alfred and Matthew had in common and it was their appearances: both were tall, wheat blonde and blue-eyed.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," Matthew muttered to himself, kicking his feet back and forth, "Brotherly love, my face. I hate him, I hate him, idiot, idiot, idi- OW! WHAT THE FRICK-FRACK WAS THAT!" Yelping, he jumped up from the bench, the back of his heel throbbing. Apparently, he had swung his feet a little too aggressively and his heel had hit something. But he was sitting in the middle of the bench, he couldn't have kicked one of the legs. Scrutinizing the ground under the bench, that shadow still looked very solid.

Suddenly a red light flashed in the darkness. He jumped and looked around him to see if anyone had seen. Fellow tourists continued to pass by, paying him and the bench no heed. He crept along the grey chipped sidewalk, getting closer to the bench and crouching in front of it. Blinking once, he opened his eyes and the red light flashed one more time. The saying, "If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you," came to mind. Studying Nietzsche had been terribly boring until he had seen that quote. It had resonated with him, and he remembered it.

Matthew reached into the 'void' with one hand. A sharp edge made itself known to him and he continued reaching. Fingers slipped into an orifice on the opposite side of the object and he pulled it around, turning the source of the red light to him.

All it was was a box, with six parallel lines across the top, which he presumed was where the light was coming from. "Where's an opening?" Picking up the box and setting it on his lap he searched for a way to open it. Knowing that this wasn't his, he had tried to stop himself but he couldn't. This was the most exciting thing to happen to him in months! Regardless of how pathetic that was, it was the truth.

"AHA!" Exclaimed Matthew, a little loudly. Glancing around, he made sure that the passersby were continuing in their indifference; they were. He undid the latch he had found and pushed open the lid of the box. For a second he just stared, what was sitting in his lap not fully registering.

A mass of silver cylinders and copper wires lay inside the box, a timer on top ticking in neon red lights.

_There's a bomb in my lap. There's a bomb in my lap. There's a BOMB. IN MY LAP. OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD! I CAN'T BREATHE, I NEED TO BE PERFECTLY STILL SO I DON'T SET IT OFF. OH MY GOD OH MY GOD. WHY IS THERE A BOMB IN AN AMUSEMENT PARK? WHY DID I FIND A BOMB IN AN AMUSEMENT PARK?! THIS ISN'T A VERY AMUSING PARK!_

Finally, the timer registered; 00:10:53.27. 10 minutes; the bomb was going to go off in 10 MINUTES. Bombs killed people. Matthew didn't know much, but he assumed even a bomb this small could kill hundreds of people. Telling a security guard like you are supposed to do in situations like these wasn't an option, there was no time. He could run. If he started now and ran as fast and as far as possible, he could survive.

At the sound of a cry he turned around. A 4 year old girl stood crying, her mother attempting to comfort her, ice cream on the cement in front of her pretty purple shoes. Children: there were children in this park. Innocent people that he would be dooming if he ran away. He could warn them, but he couldn't possibly convince the entire park to evacuate in less than 9 minutes. He could wrap himself around the bomb and try to shield everyone else, but he wasn't sure that that would actually be effective. He was useless. Why couldn't a competent person have found it; there were only 8 minutes until detonation now. At least he was pretty sure that was what it was called.

"You got nothing to lose, boys! Lo-o-ose," Matthew sang under his breath. Except he had everything to lose: his lives, and everyone elses.

"Mommy, why is it called Cliffside?" From behind him the girl was talking to her mother. "Because one side of the park grounds drops off in a HUGE cliff. You need to make sure not to go too close to it when we go over there. You might fall and I won't be there to catch you. Promise?" "Promise, Mommy."

He could throw it off the cliff. He picked it up, the timer at 4 minutes, the bomb was heavier than he thought it'd be. He sprinted for the east side of the park, yelling for people to get out of the way. By the time the cliff was in sight he had less than a minute. There was no way he was going to be able to have time to throw it. People weren't moving out of the way fast enough and he couldn't throw on a good day. He was going to have to jump.

"Come on, you can do this, it isn't like anyone's going to miss you." He mumbled to himself, on the last stretch of distance, mere seconds left, "Make your brothers happy. JUMP!"

The last thing Matthew saw after blinking was white; the sun was blinding.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: The song he is singing to himself is "You Got Nothing to Lose" From Julie and the Phantoms. And yeah, he is dead. We will assume that he stopped anyone else from dying. But we don't know for sure.


End file.
